On photography forums I see a lot of confusion about what is meant by prime lenses, zoom lenses, and telephoto lenses in particular. A zoom lens is able to change its focal length, i.e. to zoom in and out. This does not necessarily mean that it is a telephoto lens. A prime lens has aContinue reading “Prime, zoom, telephoto or wide angle lens?”
Tag Archives: lens
Lens designations
These days, camera lenses are high-tech pieces of kit. Each manufacturer uses many abbreviations and acronyms to refer to the various technologies and it can get confusing to compare lenses – especially when different manufacturers use different names to refer to the same technology. You can look up the abbreviations on each manufacturer’s website (seeContinue reading “Lens designations”
Angle of view on various formats
I’ve probably discussed before the way that different size “sensors” (or pieces of film) need different focal length lenses to achieve the same angle of view. For instance, it is well known that a 50mm lens on an APS-C crop-sensor DSLR behaves a bit like a 75mm lens on a 35mm full-frame camera. I’ve extendedContinue reading “Angle of view on various formats”
Second pinhole test
After making some pinholes recently, I tested them with my DSLR. It has a tiny sensor and it’s not even the camera I intended to use the pinholes with. So naturally I’ve now tested them with my Horseman 980 view camera, which has a sensor area sixteen times greater than a crop-sensor DSLR. I wasContinue reading “Second pinhole test”
Pinhole test
Recently I wrote about making a pinhole lens for my view camera. The results weren’t brilliant and I wondered if I had chosen the right diameter of pinhole. So I asked laser dude to cut some more pinholes in other sizes, and now I have 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm and 0.5mm pinholes, all mounted in 80mmContinue reading “Pinhole test”
Homemade lens
I’ve often thought about making my own lenses, but unfortunately I’m so bad at making things I’ve always avoided it (apart from making a pinhole “lens”). But this week I was fortunate enough to be left with a broken 35mm slide projector, a Braun Novamat 515 AF-I, to be specific. It had a Braun Color-PaxonContinue reading “Homemade lens”
Horseman 6×9 lenses
In theory, the Horseman 6×9 cameras such as the 970, 980, 985, VH and VH-R can take normal large format lenses – obviously with the caveat that the smaller film format means the angle of view is narrower for a given focal length. However, these Horseman 6×9 cameras have small lens boards and can’t accommodateContinue reading “Horseman 6×9 lenses”
Pictures of cameras
This week, the Photo Challenge was a surprise to me, because Paul set it. It’s a nice feeling, because I get to participate like everyone else. The Challenge was called the 5 Minute Photoshoot: What I want you to do, is find a location (any location, it doesn’t matter. It could be your front room,Continue reading “Pictures of cameras”
Making a solar filter
I wanted a solar filter for my camera, for safe observation and photography of the sun. Typically these filters have an optical density of OD 5.0, which for photographers is ND 100,000. This means that only 0.001% of light is allowed through the filter. You can buy pre-made solar filters, but they are expensive andContinue reading “Making a solar filter”
Astrophotography tutorial: shoot the Moon
Whether or not they have an interest in astronomy, at some point most photographers are likely to take a picture of the Moon. There’s a lot more to astrophotography than you might think, so I’ll walk through this step-by-step guide on shooting the Moon. Capturing the best source image It’s important to capture the bestContinue reading “Astrophotography tutorial: shoot the Moon”
Jonathan Gazeley 